For the Love of Willadean (1964) Roger Mobley, Michael McGreevey, Billy Mumy
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (TV series 1954–1990)
For the Love of Willadean: A Taste of Melon (8 March 1964)
"Disneyland" For the Love of Willadean: A Taste of Melon (original title)
TV Episode - 60 min - Adventure|Biography|Drama

Friday, April 27, 2012

Charley and the Angel is a 1973 Disney family/comedy film set in an unidentified small city in the 1930s Depression-era Midwestern United States and starring Fred MacMurray in one of his final film appearances and his last movie for Walt Disney Pictures. The film, directed by Vincent McEveety, is based on The Golden Evenings of Summer, a 1971 novel written by Will Stanton.

Midnight Lace (1960) is an American mystery-thriller film starring Doris Day and Rex Harrison, directed by David Miller. The screenplay by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts is based on the play Matilda Shouted Fire by Janet Green. Produced by Ross Hunter.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Babette's Feast (Danish: Babettes gæstebud) is a 1987 Danish film directed by Gabriel Axel. The film's screenplay was written by Axel based on the story by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), who also wrote the story which inspired the 1985 Academy Award winning film Out of Africa. Produced by Just Betzer, Bo Christensen, and Benni Korzen with funding from the Danish Film Institute, Babette's Feast was the first Danish cinema film of a Blixen story. It was also the first Danish film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.

Stephane Audran plays Babette, a 19th century Parisian political refugee who seeks shelter in a rough Danish coastal town. Philippa (Bodil Kjer) and Martina (Birgitte Federspiel), the elderly daughters of the town's long-dead minister, take Babette in. As revealed in flashback, Philippa and Martina were once beautiful young women (played by Hanne Stensgaard and Vibeke Hastrup), who'd forsaken their chances at romance and fame, taking hollow refuge in religion. Babette holds a secret that may very well allow the older ladies to have a second chance at life. This is one of the great movies about food, but there are way too many surprises in Babette's Feast to allow us to reveal anything else at this point (except that Ingmar Bergman "regulars" Bibi Andersson and Jarl Kulle have significant cameo roles).. ~ Hal Erickson

Madame Rosa (Simone Signoret) is a frail, aging, retired Jewish prostitute and Auschwitz survivor who earns a meager living by caring for the children of younger female sex workers, as well as for Momo (short for Mohammed) (Sami Ben Youb), a young Arab boy on the verge of adolescence. Momo hasn't seen his parents in years. He and Madame Rosa struggle to make ends meet, and as her body and mind start to fail, it becomes clear that Momo is the only person she has left in the world. Despite his young age, he has to help Madame Rosa who refuses to be hospitalized. He will stay with her as she faces her ultimate fears and prepares for her last and most difficult voyage.

Background

The story of Madame Rosa and Momo unfolds in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural community. The profound emotional bond between the two main characters, one an old Jewish woman and the other a young Arab boy, is what drives the film emotionally from the beginning to the end.

The film also emphasizes the compassion and empathy that can be found in such a disadvantaged community context through the helping gestures of the secondary characters. Madame Lola, for example, while being bluntly described by Momo as "a transvestite" who had been "a boxing champion in Senegal" is depicted in both the book and the film without any sensationalism. To the contrary, she is presented as a compassionate human being who is concerned by the poverty of Madame Rosa and Momo giving them food and money without expecting anything in return.

Momo says of her that "she's really somebody", that he "likes her"; Madame Rosa declares, "She's a Saint, I don't know where we'd be without her". The dynamic represented between Madame Rosa, Momo and their transsexual prostitute neighbor, Madame Lola, stands as a good example of the type of deeply humanistic values and respect for human difference, whether that difference is of a sexual, religious, or racial nature, that is embedded in Romain Gary's written text and further successfully emphasized through Moshé Mizrahi's cinematographic representation of the story.

Awards

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (1977)

César Award for Best Actress for Simone Signoret (1978)

Release date: 2 November 1977 (France)

19 March 1978 (USA)105 min - Drama
French with English sub-titles
Good to Very Good Quality ~ digital transfer!

Who Killed Teddy Bear, A Fascinating Chronicle of Wagner-era Times Square
The seedy '60s, revived. Of course, Elaine Stritch was there the first time.
by Melissa Anderson Tuesday, Jan 19 2010 / THE VILLAGE VOICE

"In this unforgettable capsule of seedy mid-'60s New York, Stritch shares the screen with Sal Mineo as the disco's shy busboy who, when not checking out dirty bookstores or having flashbacks to a bizarre moment of sexual congress, strokes himself over the tightest-fitting white jeans while making obscene phone calls to Juliet Prowse, a DJ at the disco and actress-hopeful. Beyond the film's DSM IV–worth of psychosexual pathologies—even the cop (Jan Murray) assigned to help Prowse has a creepy attachment to his sex-crimes investigations—Who Killed Teddy Bear is a fascinating chronicle of Wagner-era Times Square, capturing, documentary-like, Prowse popping into the Music Box Theater on West 45th Street for an audition or Mineo prowling along 42nd Street in search of smut. For those interested in frug lessons, the hip-shaking at Stritch's disco approaches light speed."

"Who Killed Teddy Bear? Plain and simple - a now public domain, seedy, little indie film shot on location (Times Square, NYC) in B/W. It was not a hit when released - but today - it is a cult classic." L. Sinclair / NYC News.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Double Whoopee is a 1929 Hal Roach Studios silent short comedy starring Laurel and Hardy. It was shot during February 1929 and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on May 18 of that year.

Laurel and Hardy play the roles of a footman (Hardy) and doorman (Laurel) at an upper class hotel. Jean Harlow also makes a brief appearance in this film, as a blonde bombshell who gets partially stripped by Laurel & Hardy.

Restored. Pristine!

Running time: 20 min.

Iron Man is a 1931 drama film directed by Tod Browning and starring Lew Ayres, Robert Armstrong and Jean Harlow.It is a bit of an anomaly for Browning, who is more associated with horror and melodrama than sports films.

The Public Enemy (1931) James Cagney & Jean HarlowThe Public Enemy (released as Enemies of the Public in the United Kingdom) is a 1931 American all-talking Pre-Code gangster film produced and distributed by Warner Bros.. The film was directed by William A. Wellman and stars James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods, Donald Cook, and Joan Blondell. The film relates the story of a young man's rise in the criminal underworld in prohibition-era urban America. The supporting players include Beryl Mercer, Murray Kinnell, and Mae Clarke. The screenplay is based on a never-published novel by two former street thugs — Beer and Blood by John Bright and Kubec Glasmon — who had witnessed some of Al Capone's murderous gang rivalries in Chicago.2 DVDs - FREE worldwide ship $9.99Click link below to pay $9.99 securely with Debit/Cards card via shopify.com. https://rarefilmclassics.myshopify.com/products/pay-here-for-9-99-dvds-usa-internationalINDIVIDUAL DVDS: The Public Enemy & Iron Man, Double Whoopee$6.99 USA ship only!
Click link below for secure Debit/Credit card payment via shopify.comhttp://rarefilmclassics.myshopify.com/products/pay-here-for-6-99-dvd-usa-ship-only

Brian was also writer, producer & director of ButterflyMcQueen (Prissy in "Gone With the Wind") in her one woman show. As well as producer and writer for all films and recordings of "Country sing-sation" and acclaimed artist, Dallas Hill. Additionally, Brian has over 16 record albums and films & videos to his credit.

On the lecture circuit, Brian has toured throughout the U.S.A. in "The Art of the Silent Film."

His original music scores and exclusive copyrights to such classics as Nazimova in Salome and Camille, SHE (1925) with Betty Blythe, Moran of the Lady Letty (1923) with Valentino and Dorothy Dalton, Anna Christie (1923) with Blanche Sweet among others are international bestsellers and are highly acclaimed by the cinema press.

His books on Amazon.com Kindle are widely read. An eclectic mix of inspirational Christianity to illustrated children and politics - show the vast array of Brian's interests.

"Onward and upward in the Spirit." smiles Brian. "There is no other way, other than the way of 'Truth'."